Margo à la Maude

My sister and brother-in-law were here last weekend. I only thought of it later, but it would have been perfect had we made our way to a ballet supply shop so that Tati & Tonton could have bought Margo a tutu. And a Tintin comic book.

...

(tapping of a microphone) Is this thing on? Anybody out there? This is quality stuff I'm dishing out here.

Okay, no accounting for good taste.

Margo's Tati Patti and Tonton Peter were here last weekend. They've been the only uncle & aunt living in the same city as Margo's cousins for so long, that I'm not actually sure if that's the names that they go by... they're just "Tati" and "Tonton," and when I show up in Winnipeg, all hell breaks loose because there are two tontons.

We had a great time. Pat and Peter have been to Ottawa often enough that now when they come, it can be more about visiting than touring the city. And Margo took to them immediately, which was great. Pat got her laughing immediately, and Margo went right up to Peter and bumped noses with him. Which is odd, because she has never done that to us. Maybe Gerber or Fisher Price make a nice baby-attracting cologne. Or maybe he's a nice, kid-friendly guy.

So this is the dilemma with living away from family: when does Margo get to know them. Pat mentioned that they wanted to make the effort to come and see Margo, and be a part of her life. Thank you. Travelling to visit family is getting harder and harder, especially now that Margo refuses to stay still unless she's "chaos-ing" a bookshelf or wipes basket.

I picked up a little trick from my sister Val, of having photos of the extended family up on the wall, and running Margo through the name game with them every so often. At this point, I'm not sure that it's really doing much good, because she seems to find them all quite amusing, from her ultrasound to the 1950 photo of my grandfather and his sons, doing their best to look like rum-runners and hired muscle at speakeasies (wrong era, I know, but I calls 'em like I sees 'em). I've yet to get around to putting Tontons Adrian or Paul up in the spaces provided, so we'll see if the photo wall works when she sees them and plays shy.

But that's it... short of constant travelling, on our part or theirs, will Margo know her extended family? Will she grow to know her Ottawa-based second cousins better than her own cousins? Will she ever be reunited with her identical twin who was stolen by Fidel Castro to continue the revolution in Cuba when he's gone? I guess time will tell. Time, and maybe a constant stream of tasteful, expensive gifts or cash donations from said family.

- Michel

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 15, 2007 at 9:41 p.m.. You can skip to the end and leave a response.